Uncovering the Mysteries of the Judgement of the Dead in Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs were centered around a different of complex ceremonial that were influenced by many aspects of Egyptian culture. Religion was a main contributor, since it was an important social practice that tied all Egyptians together. For example, many of the Egyptian gods played roles in guiding the souls of the dead through the afterlife. With the development of writing, religious ideals were recorded and quickly spread throughout the Egyptian community.

The judgement of the dead in ancient Egypt commencement and solidification of these doctrines were formed in the creation of afterlife texts which explained and illustrated what the dead would need to know in order to complete the journey safely.

This detail view from the Papyrus of Hunefer (c. 1375 BC) appear Hunefer’s heart being weighed on the scale of Maat against the feather of truth, by the jackal-headed Anubis. The ibis-headed Thoth, scribe of the gods, write the result. If his heart is lighter than the feather, Hunefer is pliable to pass into the afterlife. If not, he is eaten by the waiting Ammit. Vignettes like these were a popular illustration in Egyptian books of the dead.

Egyptian religious doctrines contain three afterlife ideologies: belief in an underworld, endless life, and rebirth of the soul. The underworld, also recognized as the Duat, had only one inlet that could be reached by traveling through the tomb of the dead. The premier image a soul would be presented with upon entering this Kingdom was a corridor filled with an array of fascinating statues, including a difference of the hawk-headed god, Horus.

The path taken to the underworld may have different between kings and public people. After entry, spirits were presented to another eminent god, Osiris. Osiris would determine the virtue of the dead’s soul and grant those counted deserving a peaceful afterlife. The Egyptian meaning of ‘eternal life’ was often seen as being reborn indefinitely. So, the souls who had lived their life elegantly were guided to Osiris to be born again.

In order to obtain the ideal afterlife, many practices had to be performed during one’s life. This may have inclusive acting justly and following the beliefs of Egyptian creed. Additionally, the Egyptians stressed the ceremonial completed after an individual’s life has finished. In other words, it was the responsibility of the living to carry out the last traditions required so the dead could immediately meet their final fate. Ultimately, maintaining high religious morals by both the living and the dead, as well as complying to a diversity of traditions, guaranteed the dead a smoother transition into the underworld.

Egyptians request to perform their jobs and partake in their hobbies in the afterlife. Rivers and natural places with fertile soil for farmers were thought to exist in the afterlife, and drawings on tomb walls of objects like boats were thought to make them show in the afterlife for people who used the objects before they died.

Egyptian Mythology

 

The Egyptian underworld was named Duat, though some argue that it wasn’t really an underworld, but a way to the stars.

Egyptians thought  that, after you died, your spirit would journey through Duat to see Osiris, the dead king of the underworld. If you had money, your family would construct a tomb and have you mummified in order to protect your spirit. If you had a lot of money, or were a pharaoh, you could have built (before your death) a pyramid, of which there are over 90 in Egypt, as a tomb.

The way to Osiris was risky; you would have to compete with monsters and traps. The Egyptian Book of the Dead outlined how to make it through the different traps and trials that you would meet in the afterlife, as well as chants and spells that the living would use to help you along your way.

Once you arrive to Osiris, you would have to declare yourself guilty or innocent of different crimes. Then, the jackal-headed Anubis would weigh your heart on a device of scales, with a feather from the goddess of truth as the counterweight. If the heart weighed more than the feather, that meant that you were sinful, and you were eaten by Ammit, the aptly called Devourer of the Dead. If you passed, you were allowed to join the gods in the Field of Reeds — Egyptian paradise.

Egyptian Book of the Dead

 

Egyptian Book of the Dead, ancient Egyptian collection of morgue texts made up of spells or charm formulas, placed in tombs and believed to protect and aid the dead in the hereafter. Probably compiled and reedited during the 16^th century BCE, the collection inclusive Coffin Texts antedate from c. 2000 BCE, Pyramid Texts antedate from c. 2400 BCE, and other writings. Later compilations included chants to Re, the sun god. Numerous compilers, authors, and sources share to the work.

Scribes reproduce the texts on rolls of papyrus, often colorfully illustrated, and sold them to individuals for burial use. Many copies of the book have been found in Egyptian tombs, but none include all of the approximately 200 known chapters. The series, literally titled “The Chapters of Coming-Forth-by-Day,” received its present name from Karl Richard Lepsius, the German Egyptologist who published the first series of the texts in 1842.

 

The Process of the Judgement of the Dead in Ancient Egypt: Weighing the Heart

 

Anubis Ancient Greek: Ἄνουβις), also known as Inpw, Jnpw,  Inpu,  or Anpu in Ancient Egyptian is the god of funerary ceremonial, protector of graves, and guide to the underworld, in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a dog or a man with a dog head.

Like many judgements of the dead in ancient Egypt, Anubis supposed different roles in various contexts. Drown as a protector of graves as early as the First Dynasty (c. 3100 – c. 2890 BC), Anubis was also an embalmer. By the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1650 BC) he was changed by Osiris in his role as lord of the underworld. One of his notable roles was as a god who ushered souls into the afterlife.

He made the weighing scale during the “Weighing of the Heart”, in which it was intend whether a soul would be allowed to enter the kingdom of the dead. Anubis is one of the most frequently depicted and mentioned gods in the Egyptian pantheon; however, no relevant legend involved him.

Anubis was depicted in black, a color that symbolized regeneration, the soil of the Nile River, life, , and the discoloration of the corpse after mumming. Anubis is connected with his brother Wepwawet, another Egyptian god portrayed with a dog’s head or in dog form, but with grey or white fur. Historians suppose that the two numbers were eventually combined. Anubis’ female counterpart is Anput. His daughter is the snake goddess Kebechet.

Egyptian God Osiris

 

Osiris  from Egyptian wsjr is the god of fertility, agriculture, the dead, resurrection,  the afterlife,  life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was classically depicted as a green-skinned idol with a pharaoh’s beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive ate crown, and holding a symbolic juggler and flail. He was one of the first to be connected with the mummy wrap. When his brother Set cut him up into parts after killing him, Osiris’ wife Isis found all the parts and wrapped his body up, enabling him to revive him . Osiris was widely idol until the decline of ancient Egyptian religion during the ascent of Christianity in the Roman Empire.

Judgement of the Dead in Ancient Egypt associate with Osiris  , however, he had many important roles, he was the embodiment of death and resurrection. Osiris was also responsible for the yearly flooding of The Nile River, which the ancient Egyptians depend on for agricultural fertility.

In terms of powers, he didn’t have any stereotypical ones like the ability to fly or form shift like many Greek Gods. The Ancient Egyptians instead thought that power was control. So Osiris was not only the Judgement of the dead in ancient Egypt of the dead but also the power that granted all life from the underworld.

Egyptian God Maat

 

Maat or Maʽat comprised the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, order, harmony, balance, law, morality, and justice. Ma’at was also the goddess who personified these concepts, and regulated the seasons, stars,  and the actions of mortals and the deities who had brought order from chaos at the moment of creation. Her ideological reverse was Isfet (Egyptian jzft), meaning chaos, injustice,  violence or to do evil. Maat was judgement of the dead in ancient Egypt

Weighing of the Heart Ceremony

 

Vignette from a papyrus depicting the Weighing the Heart of the deceased in a balance. The Two Maat in the Judgment of the dead in ancient Egypt Hall weigh the heart of the dead  against a statue of Maat. The goddess Maat was the icon of the universal order and it was believed that there were two of them:

One for the living and one for the dead. She was characterized by two major aspects: on the one hand, she represented the cosmic order or balance – including concepts like truth and justice – that were decided at the time of creation.

On the other, Maat also represents the concept of ‘judgement’ and in fact, in later funerary literature, the dead, during his journey to the afterlife, comes to the hall of the ‘two Maats’ to have his heart weighed. The gods themselves, presenting as judges of the divine court, are called “the council of Maat”.

The baboon Is one shape of Thoth, inventor of writing and secretary to the gods, whose other shape  is as an ibis-headed man. He is usually connected with this scene in order to register the outcome of the weigh in. Above the balance is a block of written hieroglyphs taken from the spell 125 of the Book of the dead.

Egyptians thought that it was the heart, “ib”, the most important organ of the human body.

The heart was the place of thought and emotions, the creator of all feelings and all actions, as well as being the place of memory, and therefore accountable for the character of each individual. No wonder then that it was carefully the heart that was weighted during the final judgment.

The ancient Egyptians believed that the heart registered all of the good and bad deeds of a person’s life, and was necessary for judgment in the afterlife. After a person died, the heart was weighed against the feather of Maat (goddess of justice and truth).

The Role of the Deceased’s Deeds in Determining their Fate

 

The judgement of the dead in ancient Egypt appear in texts to show the importance of morality and crime-fighting with various penalties. There were two kinds of prosecution for violating the moral norms: the first was the religious court of the underworld, where the dead was tried in front of Osiris for his actions, and the second was a civil court, where the correction of the community was achieved.

All the judicial issues were controlled by the vizier, the king’s right hand. The regional court or “Kenbet” (a court on the local and national level) was made up of community leaders who would hear the situation and decide who was guilty and who was innocent; there were also other courts that administered the law, like the Seru (a group of elders in a rustic community), the Djadjat (the regal court) alongside the Kenbet.

The vizier was the ultimate supreme judge but most court situation were handled by lower magistrates. The court could even be held in the marketplace or on the street, and there was also an administrative building called the judgment hall, which be in any city. In the new kingdom of ancient Egypt, there were no lawyers or adjurations, the vicar of Amun were the ones who decided the judge as the people trusted them to give a just hearing and to make the right judgment.